1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic mail (email). More particularly, the present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for transparent on-demand certificate provisioning for secure email.
2. Related Art
To participate in a secure email exchange, a user must obtain a public/private keypair and a corresponding digital certificate. While a keypair can be automatically generated by the user's client system, obtaining a certificate from a public certification authority (CA) may require significant effort by the end-user. In a managed environment targeted at users who may not have a high degree of technical expertise, such explicit involvement by the end-user is undesirable. As such, there is a need for a way for users to be automatically enabled for secure email (and other security services) in a managed environment, without requiring explicit action by the user.